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News April 17

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Senator Sanders

Buffett Rule Blocked Senate Republicans on Monday derailed a bill
that would have forced the nation's top earners to pay at least as much as
middle-class families in income taxes. "It is absurd that at a time when our
country has a $15 trillion national debt and enormous unmet needs, the
wealthiest people in this country have an effective tax rate that is lower than
many middle-class people," Sen. Bernie Sanders said in the Burlington Free Press and
on Fox 44 and ABC 22. LINK,
VIDEO

An Oligarchy "If we don`t turn this around, we are going to lose the
democratic foundations that have made this country the nation that it is and we
are going to move very rapidly ...into an oligarchic form of society, where a
handful of people on the top control not only the economics of the nation, they
control the politics as well," Sanders told Ed Schultz on MSNBC. VIDEO,
VIDEO

USPS The
Senate appears ready to take up a long-delayed bill to overhaul the U.S. Postal
Service. Sen. Sanders told Congressional Quarterly that changes
in the bill "will strengthen our efforts to protect small post offices, small
processing plants and protect jobs in the Postal Service." LINK

Budget Senate
Budget Chairman Conrad will include a long-term deficit reduction plan as part
of a budget resolution to be marked up this week.Some committee
members, such as Sanders, will be a hard sell on spending cuts, according to CQ
Today. LINK

Oil Speculation Barney Frank and 16 other House Democrats
filed a friend-of-the-court brief in defense of a new rule curbing speculation
in the commodities market. Last week, 19 senators including Sanders also filed
a court brief defending the federal regulator's right to put position limits in
place, Reuters reported.

The Fed Public
pressure on the Federal Reserve over the past few years had an effect.
After a long, protracted battle in Congress, Sen. Sanders and Rep. Ron Paul
were able to force an audit of the Fed by the Government Accountability Office,
The Huffington Post and MSNBC reported LINK,
VIDEO

Dental Crisis "I compliment Sen. Sanders on his recent hearings to
explore the oral health needs of Vermonters," Dr. Judith M. Fisch, a former
president of the Vermont State Dental Society, wrote in the Bennington
Banner. LINK

Nuclear Subsidies "It is shocking that the nuclear industry
continues to receive so much federal support at a time of record debt," Sanders
said in a column posted on Green Mountain Daily, Michaelmoore.com and Democratic Underground. LINK, LINK,
LINK

Puerto Rico An ad in the Burlington
Free Press urged readers to contact Sen. Sanders on the status of Puerto
Rico. "There is a referendum in Puerto Rico in November," a spokesman noted.
"Whatever the voters decide, Bernie looks forward to working with the people of
Puerto Rico." LINK

World

U.S. Candidate to Lead the World Bank The World Bank on
Monday named as its next president Jim Yong Kim, a global health expert and the
president of Dartmouth College, a widely expected appointment that continues
the longstanding tradition of an American leading the Washington-based development
institution, The New York Times reported. LINK

National

Obama Discovers Oil Speculation Under pressure to take action on
rising gasoline prices, President Obama wants Congress to strengthen federal
supervision of oil markets. Obama plans to spell out his proposal Tuesday at
the White House, The Associated Press reported. LINK

Republicans to Slash Food Stamps From food stamps to child tax credits
and Social Service block grants, House Republicans began rolling out a new wave
of domestic budget cuts Monday but less for debt reduction - and more to
sustain future Pentagon spending without relying on new taxes, Politico reported. LINK

Income Gap French economists Emmanuel Saez and Thomas Piketty have
tracked the incomes of the poor, the middle class and the rich in countries
across the world. Their work shows that the top earners in the United States
have taken a bigger and bigger share of overall income with inequality nearly
as acute as it was before the Great Depression, The New York Times reported. LINK

Vermont

Student Loans Rep. Peter Welch hopes Congress will keep interest on
the Federal Direct Stafford Student loans at 3.4 percent rather than allowing
them to double on July 1 to 6.8 percent on new loans, the Burlington Free
Press reported. LINK

Union Dues Vermont public employees who don't join the unions
representing them could soon have to pay to support those groups anyway. The
state Senate is to take up legislation by Sen. Vincent Illuzzi affecting
teachers, state and municipal workers who don't join the unions representing
them, AP reported. LINK

Free Press is Pulitzer Finalist The Pulitzers were announced on
Monday, and The Burlington Free Press was one of three finalists for editorial
writing for its campaign to reform the state's access to public records laws, AP reported. LINK

Immigrants Arrested The U.S. Border Patrol accused seven
undocumented immigrants working on a construction project at the University of
Vermont of being in the country illegally, The Burlington Free Press reported. LINK